Sunday, February 22, 2009

BULLDOGS BREAK OUT IN FIRST-EVER DIVISION I WIN, BEAT SACRED HEART, 22-8, ON THE ROAD

Boxscore

FAIRFIELD, Conn. - Six goals from senior co-captain Zack Greer (Whitby, Ont.) led eight different scorers who chipped in tallies for the Bryant University men's lacrosse team as the Bulldogs topped Sacred Heart University, 22-8, to earn the program's first-ever Division I win on the road at Campus Field Sunday afternoon. 

Greer recorded 11 points in the contest, adding five assists to his six goals to lead all scorers, while senior captains Bryan Kaufmann (Putnam Valley, N.Y.) and Kevin Hoagland (Glastonbury, Conn.) also registered multi-goal games of their own with six and five goals, respectively. The Bulldogs (1-1) outshot the Pioneers (0-2), 55-30.

"We are please with how our guys responded again on the road," said head coach Mike Pressler. "We had to get into this stretch of three games in six days and carry momentum, and we challenged our guys after UVA."

The scorer of two goals against Virginia in Bryant's season opener, Hoagland opened the scoring on Sunday with his first of five tallies just 1:32 into the opening frame. Sacred Heart's Bobby Karl evened the score, but from there, the Bulldogs would not be contained.

Kaufmann and Matt Larson (Cheshire, Conn.) each netted a tally two minutes apart - the former coming from Greer's first helper of the contest - to go up, 4-1 after 15 minutes of action, before Hoagland captured Bryant's first hat trick of the year with back-to-back goals to open the second.

Kaufmann took advantage of a man-up opportunity with 10:05 on the clock to make the score favor the Bulldogs to the tune of 6-1.

But the Pioneers would answer just two seconds later, when Timmy Katz got his first goal of the game past freshman goalkeeper Jameson Love (Darien, Conn.). Dan Casciano made it two straight for the home side to bring the score to 6-3, but little more scoring would be done on Love, who turned away nine shots in another stellar outing for the Black and Gold. 

"Love was solid for us again in goal today," said Pressler.

With 4:10 to play in the half, Greer gave the Bulldogs a 7-3 lead, netting his first goal in a Bulldog uniform and first of six on the day. The goal, assisted by Hoagland, came off a quick sot to the upper left corner and over the shoulder of SHU goalie Tom Trgo.

"It was nice to get it out of the way," Greer said of his first tally as a Bulldog. "Obviously we played very well offensively, everyone did. It's nice to get this momentum going."

"It was nice to see Zack get his first Bryant goal," said Pressler. "But certainly all three attackmen played very well. And we did well to get them the ball in scoring position. Hoagland and Kaufmann played at the same level [as Greer]. And when all three attackmen are playing at that level, you're gonna have a good day no matter who you're playing."

Greg Lehane's (Southlake, Texas) first goal of the season with 1:55 to play before intermission would round out the scoring and send the Bulldogs into the break up, 8-3. John Truscello (Holbrook, N.Y.) got the helper, his second of the outing.

But it was the third frame that saw the Bulldogs really break out offensively, outscoring Sacred Heart, 8-2, to pull away and put the game out of reach.

Hoagland opened the half with an unassisted tally before Kaufmann - from Greer - put a 10-3 lead on the scoreboard just 14 seconds later. Gary Crowley (Scituate, Mass.) chipped in his goal before SHU's Katz and Bobby Rushton went back-to-back to close the gap to 10-5. But when Greer scored a natural hat trick in a 1:46 span near the end of the period - adding his second, third and fourth goals of the game - the Bulldogs were all but out of reach for the Pioneers.

"It makes me think back to his freshman year in 2005 when we were together [at Duke] and it was great to see that again and in a Bryant uniform," Pressler said. "But that's Zack being Zack."

Hoagland and Greer each added one more to end the third with a 16-5 advantage.

But both Pressler and Greer acknowledge that the Bulldogs' success today stemmed from one source - the play of faceoff specialist Andrew Hennessey (Wading River, N.Y.). Hennessey won 21-of-30 faceoffs to lead Bryant to a 24-of-33 mark from the X on the day. He picked up eight ground balls in the contest.

"The key to the entire game was that Andrew Hennessey was winning faceoffs," said Pressler. "We had the ball."

"Winning faceoffs was key," echoed Greer. "Hennessey's performance was key, especially in the third quarter when we were scoring a lot. If you're not winning faceoffs, you can't do that."

Goals from Kaufmann, Greer, Evan Roberts (West Cornwall, Vt.) and Bryant Amitrano (Valley Stream, N.Y.) peppered the final frame, with Kaufmann scoring a man-down tally with 14:39 left in the game off a pretty passing sequence started by a caused turnover from Anthony Iannello (Lake Ronkonkoma, N.Y.).

And while Sacred Heart would get one more with less than a second to play, the home team would fall, 22-8, as the Bulldogs took the program's first Division I win. 

"To see our first Division I win, to get it on the road, to get it in the rain, to get it against a well-coached future NEC team that we'll see all the time," said Pressler. "To get it how we did was a very positive day for Bryant lacrosse."

The Bulldogs play again on Tuesday, Feb. 24 when they face off against Dartmouth College in Hanover, N.H. Game time is 3 p.m.